


Monsters in the Walls

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: M/M, POV Alternating, Season/Series 03, Slash, Team Dynamics, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 09:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9650447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: The team goes to investigate a possible anomaly site to find something surprising. It was a good thing that they were also good at climbing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Livejournal in 2013. Written for the Primeval Denial Art Challenge. Thanks to the wonderful fififolle for the beta, all remaining mistakes are mine. And thanks, of course, to kerry_louise for the great artprompt.
> 
> Mentions of episode 3x06, so light spoilers for that episode.

They had done a good job in the old quarry, Becker had to admit that. The restoration plan, once finished, had turned the devastated and barren place into a beautiful landscape, with small green zones on every stepped bench, and high walls of rock, perfect for climbing. In the bottom of the quarry, which had been a wasteland of debris for many years, there was now a small reservoir of dark blue-green water.  
  
The creation of a climbing resort in the old quarry had been a well publicised project, the gem of the environment program of the local council, Becker had been told, and that’s why there were some quite nervous politicians right now. The news of a gory death in the old quarry just a month before it re-opened was spreading fast, and that wasn’t the kind of news they wanted the public to associate with their project, especially after spending so much public money on it: geologists, hydrologists, a well-known landscape architect and, of course, the recently deceased photographer, who had been sent by a high-level publicity agency.  The agency, hired to develop the publicity campaign for the opening, was demanding an explanation for the death of one of its most talented photographers, and the local police were more than a bit confused about the whole thing.  
  
The ARC team had arrived only a few hours after the body of the photographer, or what was left of him, had been found. Somebody in the vast list of Jenny’s contacts had sent her the photographs that had been recovered from the photographer’s battered camera, which had been found still strapped to the man’s harness. There were a few beautiful pictures of the landscape, which showed he had indeed been a good photographer, and in the last one, a closer and less artistic photograph of a piece of land where an anomaly was clearly recognisable.  
  
“So they found the body here?” Becker asked the police officer who had been waiting for them in the quarry.  
  
“Well, more or less. The rappel anchor was found there,” he answered, pointing behind him, “and the body was hanging from the rope about 20 metres down. It looks like he didn’t have time to climb up to escape from whatever was attacking him.”  
  
It had been obvious to everybody from the start that the death had been caused by an animal, but the local authorities were quite confused about what kind of animal could have done such damage. As well as confused, the people who lived in the town near the area were already worried and asking a lot of questions.  
  
“Do you have any idea what could have done this?” the policeman asked Becker. “That’s why you've come here, right?”  
  
“We have investigated some similar incidents in recent years,” Becker said, wishing he had Jenny’s skills for these situations, “so we thought we could help.”  
  
The policeman didn’t look very convinced, but he just nodded.  
  
“And is this all your team?” he asked looking at Danny, who was carrying bags of equipment from the car.  
  
“No, there's more help on the way,” Becker answered. He didn’t explain that the help was just Abby and Connor, who had gone to get “first hand” information about the body. The full team had had to split up when a second anomaly alert had required their attention, but Becker was sure the four of them could manage this one; after all, the anomaly had already closed.  
  
“We're watching the road out of the quarry,” the policeman added, pointing at the narrow zigzagging road at the far end of the reservoir that led to the top of the benches. “We don’t even know if the creature's still here, the doctor said the man had been dead for 2 or 3 hours, but we thought we should be careful.  We've only checked the place from up here; we've no climbers or trackers in our police station,” he added apologetically.  
  
“We do have a few of those, don’t worry,” Becker told him.  
  
“OK, let us know if you need anything else from us,” the policeman said.  
  
“Thank you, we'll let you know if we find out what happened.” Well, Becker thought, we'll certainly let you know whatever cover story Jenny makes up for us once this is over.  
  


***

 

They had just finished assembling the anomaly locking mechanism, in case the anomaly appeared again, when Abby and Connor arrived. By the look on Connor’s pale face, their visit to the mortuary hadn’t been a nice experience, but Abby soon informed the rest of the team that they had found some useful information.  
  
“There were no claw marks,” she said. “In fact, the wounds looked more likely to have been inflicted by quite a big beak.”  
  
“A Pteranodon?” Becker asked worriedly. The high walls of rock that almost completely surrounded the place wouldn’t stop a creature that could fly.  
  
“No, it looked more like a curved beak,” Abby answered. “And a Pteranodon would have probably been able to grab him and take him away. The body was more... ripped.”  
  
Connor grimaced and his face paled even more.  
  
They had seen quite a few disturbing things during their time on the ARC team, but Connor had never got used to the gory part of their job and Becker was secretly glad about it, he didn’t want to think that Connor’s heart would harden so much that he wouldn’t be affected by it. That would mean that Connor wouldn’t be Connor anymore.  
  
“Big enough to be a Terror Bird?” Danny asked Abby, his usual grin gone from his face.  
  
“Probably,” she answered.  
  
“We'll need the big guns then,” Danny said, making a grimace.  
  
“We've brought enough tranquillizers to put a mammoth to sleep,” Abby hurried to point out. “I’m sure we can try that first, if needed.”  
  
“Yes, as long as they aren’t too close,” Danny replied.  
  
Becker looked at Abby’s determined expression and knew that she was not going to give up defending the creatures.  That was something that hadn’t changed either and Becker had learnt to appreciate that too, because sometimes it was too easy to forget that the creatures also needed their help and that they didn’t cause chaos just because they wanted to. Most of the time.  
  
“Look, Abby, I see your point, really,” Danny finally said. “But you know they're really dangerous and we have to be ready. Plus you can’t make Becker leave his beloved guns for anything.”  
  
Becker had missed the “fun” of the Terror Birds attack back during Christine’s takeover and by the look of it, it had been quite a traumatic experience for all of them. He had heard about what had happened and he regretted deeply not having been there to help his friends. Danny, Becker had been told, had made another one of his impossible rescues, the ones that made Becker’s heart stop and bleed until Danny and his silly grin appeared safely again. He didn’t regret having missed that part.  
  
Abby looked at Connor’s serious face and nodded.  
  
“OK, let’s get ready,” she said.  
  


***

 

They finally located the place where the anomaly had appeared in the photograph. It hadn’t been easy because most of the benches in the quarry looked the same (young grass on stony soil, about four metres wide, and a gray wall of rock at the back), but some distinctive rocks gave them the clue. They would have to descend from the top of one of the highest walls to get there, but it all looked calm and there was no trace of the anomaly.  
  
“I have no readings at all,” Connor said, checking the anomaly detector. “It looks like it's gone.”  
  
“Wouldn’t it be great if the creature had just got bored and left before the anomaly closed?” Danny said, looking down the cliff.  
  
“If you're scared, I've already said I’m ready to climb down,” Becker told him mockingly. “In fact I bet I would get down faster than you would.”  
  
The decision about who to send down hadn't been undisputed. Abby had insisted on climbing down herself and surprisingly Danny had supported her, to Connor’s dismay, explaining that the better shooter should stay and cover them from above.  
  
“It’s not even that high, you just want to make me say you're the best at shooting again, Becker,” Danny told him in a fake offended tone.  
  
The developers of the project had altered some of the benches to make easy climbing areas for beginners, adding ground and rocks, and they had also broken up parts of some benches to create higher climbing walls to satisfy more experienced climbers. They had thought through their project, but, unfortunately for them, where there had once been solid rock for millions of years, now there was an open space where an anomaly could open freely.  
  
Becker watched while Danny and Abby, already wearing their harnesses, secured the ropes with Connor’s help. It wasn’t a long descent, just about 25 metres, but they had to do it right. Becker handed them the helmets and Danny, as he expected, pulled a face.  
  
“Even if it doesn’t look like it, your head isn’t that thick,” Becker said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You are going to wear it or you're staying here.”  
  
“You enjoy giving orders a bit too much, Becker,” Danny replied. He got closer to Becker while putting the helmet on and whispered “It’s a good thing you're so good at following them in private, soldier boy.”  
  
Becker felt his cheeks flush, but a quick look at Abby and Connor reassured him that they were too busy talking about the Terror Birds to notice anything. He elbowed Danny not too lightly before walking to Abby’s side.  
  
“OK, the view is wide and everything looks clear,” Becker started saying, “but just in case, we have to be careful. I will be covering you from this point and you will also carry guns with tranquillizer darts.” He sighed. “You sure you don’t want to change your mind and carry a real gun?”  
  
“These doses are the strongest,” Abby said, “and you'll be our guardian angel up here. We'll be OK.”  
  
Connor handed them the tranquillizer guns and they secured the holster to the belt of the harness.  
  
“Down we go!” Danny said, lowering himself down the cliff.  
  


***

 

Becker watched carefully, with Connor by his side, while Abby and Danny descended. They were both good at abseiling and they had prepared the equipment correctly so, supposedly, there was no danger there. Becker was more worried about their surroundings, but there was a perfect view of the whole bench they were soon going to reach and there was nothing at all. Not a single sparkle from an anomaly and not any kind of animal, small or big, just a walkway, about 4 metres wide,  and a cliff to the next stepped bench.  
  
It only took them a few minutes to get to the ground and Becker released a relieved sigh when Danny made him a thumb-up sign and connected the earphone to talk to him. They didn’t see anything strange down there either and they were going to take the harnesses off to take a closer look at the whole walkway.  
  
“Nothing new from the anomaly detector?” Becker asked Connor, who moved to check the device. Becker watched him frowning at the screen of the detector and went nearer to him. “Something wrong?”  
  
“No, nothing,” he answered. “Maybe we aren’t lo-“  
  
“Becker!”  
  
The shout in his ear made him jump. It couldn’t have been more than 10 seconds, but when he knelt on the cliff the scene he saw was completely different: three Terror Birds had appeared out of nowhere a few metres away from Danny. They were awfully big and if they were as fast as they said, Abby and Danny were too close to run or hide.  
  
  
  
  
  
A FEW SECONDS EARLIER...  
  
Danny looked up at Becker and made a thumb-up sign. They had just got to the bench and the walkway looked empty.  
“Hello, Becker!” he said after connecting the earphone. “Missing me already?”  
  
Danny loved to tease Becker while they were working. He looked too serious and worried all the time, Danny had always thought that he should relax a little bit. That had been the reason why he had half-dragged Becker to a pub one evening to drink until they couldn’t walk straight and also the reason why Danny had kissed him in the taxi on their way home.  The fact that Becker had looked damn hot in a leather jacket had also had something to do with it, though.  
  
“What is the situation?” Becker simply asked.  
  
Danny sighed. Always so serious, he thought, he had to get Becker to loosen up more. Not that he complained about that task.  
  
“We don’t see anything strange down here, but we'll take our harnesses off and go and take a closer look at the whole walkway to see if we can find something interesting,” Danny answered.  
  
Abby was already taking off her harness with the confidence of somebody used to handling the equipment, but Danny first took off his gloves and helmet and put his hand through his hair.  
  
“Nice pose, Danny,” Abby said grinning, “but Becker isn't looking now.” She then set about activating her earphone.  
  
Danny looked up again and saw there was nobody there. He turned to Abby to give her a witty reply, but then he heard it: a shriek at his back, a fucking familiar shriek. Danny saw Abby’s expression turning into a look of horror and before he turned around he already knew what he was going to find there.  And he was right. When he turned around there were three of those huge Terror Birds on the walkway. And they were too fucking close.  
  
“Becker!” Abby shouted.  
  
The thought of where they might have come from crossed Danny’s mind for a second, but it was immediately replaced with a stronger thought: take the gun, fight. His hand went automatically to his belt, trying to grab the holster, but he realised he wasn’t going to have enough time. The first of them was so close that he only had a few seconds before it was all over. Danny then did what he usually did in these situations: he improvised. He took hold of the rope, feeling grateful for not having taken off the equipment yet, and with the other hand he threw the helmet at the first Terror Bird’s head and then jumped towards the creature, kicking it with every ounce of his strength. Proving to the world again that he was the luckiest of men, the kick was just enough to make the huge bird lose balance and start falling over the cliff. And then his luck seemed to run out when the creature managed to twist its head enough to pull him off as well.  
  
Danny was still grabbing the rope, but the sudden freefall caused the friction to burn his palms and he couldn’t hold on to it for long. The auto-block mechanism worked perfectly, stopping his fall, but so suddenly that he was thrown against the wall of rock and it hurt like hell. He would have to agree with Becker that helmets were important, Danny thought once the pain in his head and shoulder subsided.  
  
Danny wondered if his action had gained Abby some time. He was hearing shots so that meant somebody was fighting back and while he was wondering if he could climb up in time to help, Danny felt a strong shake on the rope and then started falling down.  
  
  
  
  
A FEW SECONDS EARLIER...  
  
Abby grinned at Danny and connected her earphone. She wasn’t sure if Danny truly realised that his face brightened up even more than usual when Becker smiled at him, but if they really believed they were being discreet, well, she was going to have some fun teasing both of them about it.  
  
Danny, who had immediately looked up to see if Becker was there or not, turned to her, but then she heard a shriek and saw it appearing: as in a nightmare, the monster came out from a wall. No, not from the wall, Abby managed to think rationally, from a cave. Of course there had to be natural caves in some of those benches. One, two, three creatures. The Terror Birds had probably gone into a cave to rest after their meal and now they'd heard the rest of the food had arrived.  
  
Danny’s smile faltered when he heard the shriek, he had recognised it. With her hand still on the earphone, Abby cried for Becker’s help.  
  
When Danny turned around to look at them, Abby reacted. She knelt and took the tranquillizer gun out from the holster. Suddenly it didn’t look like such great protection. There was no way to outrun a Terror Bird so she held the gun firmly and hoped Becker had heard her.  
  
Danny, of course, had to do a terribly stupid and heroic thing. Abby saw him throw the helmet at the first creature and immediately jump at it, grabbing the rope. The kick, she watched incredulously, made the Terror Bird fall over the cliff, but it dragged Danny with it.  
  
Her heart stopped for a bit, but she had work to do if she wanted to survive. Abby aimed the gun at the second creature, which was still a bit confused by the sudden disappearance of its friend, and shot. Once. Twice. The creature started to sway.  The sound of an automatic rifle told her that Becker was there and she saw the third creature falling down. The second one, although it was swaying, kept moving and stumbled on Danny’s rope, which got in its way. The Terror Bird finally fell to the ground, but such a sudden weight on the rope was too much for the anchors and Abby saw the rope starting to slip down very fast.  
  
Abby threw herself to the ground to grab the rope before it was too late. If she just could tie it to her rope... Then it stopped slipping abruptly.  
  
She crawled anxiously to the edge of the cliff and looked down. And there was Danny, just a few metres below, crushed against the wall and leaning on a small rock outcropping, which had stopped his fall. He looked a bit battered, with a bleeding cut on his temple, but mostly fine.  
  
 “You are one lucky man!” Abby said and started laughing maniacally, relief overcoming her.  
  
“You better tell me that once you get me out of here,” Danny replied smiling at her. “Just in case.”  
  
  
  
  
A FEW MINUTES LATER…  
  
Becker climbed down to help lift Danny up. Danny, of course, had insisted on climbing up on his own, but it looked like either the kick or the fall had hurt his ankle and eventually he had to give up and accept that he had to be rescued.  
  
Becker had been scared shitless when he had seen the rope breaking free. He couldn’t remember how high the fall to the next bench was and while Abby had crawled towards the cliff, he had held his breath and crushed the rifle in his hands.  Abby’s exultant laughs had been all the reassurance he had needed to know Danny was OK.  
  
He had wanted desperately to climb down right away, to get nearer to Danny to… well, he hadn’t been sure, probably to shout at him for being such an idiot, or to hug him and kiss him senseless; probably to do both things, but he still had had a job to do. He had to keep watching from up top, keeping his eyes open in case there were more Terror Birds hidden. Connor had lowered some pieces of equipment and some guns, real guns, and then Becker himself had climbed down while Abby and Connor covered the area.  
  
Becker and Abby searched the caves where the creatures had been hiding and found nothing inside, and they could all finally relax a bit.  
  
Since Danny’s injuries weren’t too serious, it wasn’t a very difficult rescue. Abby descended to where he was and helped him with the new rope, and in a few minutes Abby and Becker had lifted him up. Danny was sporting an ugly cut on his temple, but he was showing his usual big grin. That angered Becker more than he had expected. He had nearly had a heart attack and Danny acted as if nothing serious had happened.  
  
Abby hugged Danny when he stood up, limping noticeably, and Becker took a deep breath, ready to explain to him in detail all the things he shouldn’t do again in a situation like this, starting with “I’m the soldier, I’m the one to take risks here!”, but then Danny let go of Abby and hugged Becker tightly and that was enough to appease him, for the moment. Danny let go of him rather quickly, to Becker’s disappointment, but a second later he held Becker’s neck with his hand and kissed him hungrily. Becker didn’t complain at all.  
  
By the time they broke apart, Becker had already forgotten what he was about to tell him.  
  
“Aaaaaawww, you are so cute!” Abby said, grinning.  
  
Becker felt mortified, especially when he heard a wolf whistle and looked up to see Connor cheering them.  
  
Becker sighed with resignation and looked at his friends’ smiling faces. They weren’t a very disciplined team, but he wasn’t going to complain about that either.  
  
  
-End-


End file.
